On Saturday May 12th, round #4 and the first outdoor round of the Michigan State Championship Series was held at The Track in Carleton, MI. The weather forecast was not great, but still 104 entries showed up ready to finally race outdoors and they were treated with beautiful weather all day and plenty of racing action on one of the premier racetracks in Michigan.

1/8th Scale Nitro Buggy
The man to beat all weekend was  TLR and Pro-Line’s Dakotah Phend, who was the only one to get an 11 lap qualifier and thus taking TQ in the class. With only 12 seconds between the 3rd qualifier and the 10th qualifier, the main was expected to be full of battles. Due to technical issues, 2nd place qualifier Mo Denton was not able to make it to the grid, so it was going to be a field of 10 cars ready to battle. Dakotah got a clean start, but behind him there was carnage in the first turn with several cars tangled up. At the end of the first lap, Dakotah already had a 1.5 second gap on Nick Vasquez in second and the rest of the field following closely. Several laps later, the position changes settled down a little bit and the running order was Dakotah Phend in first, followed by Tony Carnes in second and Nick Vasquez in 3rd. Throughout the 30 minute main, battles were going on for 3rd through 8th place. In the end, it was TLR’s Dakotah Phend taking the win with Tony Carnes in second and TLR’s Mike Marshall, who worked his way up from a 10th place qualifying position, in third. Dakotah ran Pro-Line’s Revolver M3’s.

Results:
1. Dakotah Phend – Pro-Line
2. Tony Carnes
3. Mike Marshall
4. Michael Weihl
5. Nick Vasquez

Current standings in the series (no drops taken into consideration):
1. Dakotah Phend (608 points) – Pro-Line
2. Michael Weihl (570 points)
3. Tony Carnes (564 points)
4. Mike Marshall (548 points)
5. Nick Vasquez (547 points)

1/8th Scale Nitro Truggy
With round #4 finally being outdoors, the truggies finally felt at home a lot better on the big track that The Track provided. Just like in the nitro buggy class, TLR and Pro-Line’s Dakotah Phend was the only one able to get 11 laps in qualifying and that put him at the front of the grid. In the main, Dakotah got a clean start and started checking out. Behind him, it was Mo Denton in second and A Main Hobbies’ Scott Rapoport in third. Most of the battles throughout the main were behind the top three and positions were swapped every lap. In the end, it was Pro-Line and TLR Driver Dakotah Phend who took the win, followed by Mo Denton and A Main Hobbies’ Scott Rapoport in third place. Dakotah ran Pro-Line’s Caliber M3’s on his truggy.

Results:
1. Dakotah Phend – Pro-Line
2. Mo Denton
3. Scott Rapoport
4. Shane Snyder
5. Justin Hughes

Current Standings in the series (no drops taken into consideration):
1. Dakotah Phend (608 points) – Pro-Line
2. Mo Denton (585 points)
3. Justin Hughes (537 points)
4. Caleb Henry (521 points)
5. Scott Rapoport (434 points)(-1 race)

Read the full Buggy-Sport.info article here…